Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia (1886) (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. THE WANTS OF HIM THAT WANTS NOTHING. ON the next day his old instructor, imagining that he had now made himself acquainted with his disease of mind, was in hope of curing it by counsel, and officiously sought an opportunity of conference, which the prince, having long considered him as one whose intellects were exhausted, was not very willing to afford: " Why," said he, " does this man thus obtrude upon me; shall I be never suffered to forget those lectures which pleased only while they were new, and to become new again, must be forgotten ? " He then walked into the wood, and composed himself to his usual meditatns; when, before his thoughts had taken any settled form, he perceived his pursuer at his side, and was at first prompted by his impatience to go hastily away; but, being unwilling to offend a man whom he had once reverenced and still loved, he invited him to sit down with him on the bank. The old man, thus encouraged, began to lament the change which had been lately observed in the prince, and to inquire why he so often retired from the pleasures of the palace, to loneliness and silence. " I fly from pleasure," said the prince, " because pleasure has ceased to please; I am lonely because I am miserable, and am unwilling to cloud with my presence the happiness of others." " You, sir," said the sage, "are the first who has complained of misery in the happy valley. I hope to convince you that THE WANTS OF HIM THAT WANTS NOTHING.. 9 yoUr complaints have no real cause. You are here in full possession of all the emperor of Abyssinia can bestow; here is neither labor to be endured nor danger to be dreaded, yet here is all that labor or danger can procure or purchase. Look round and tell me which of your wants is without supply; if you want nothing, ...